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It took artist Gerard Gauci a week to paint the whimsical portraits of sopranos Meghan Lindsay and Peggy Kriha Dye, which grace the stage of the Elgin Theatre in Opera Atelier’s Lucio SillaLucio Silla.

But it only takes one minute for them to be destroyed when enraged dictator Lucio Silla punches one painting and stabs the other. The powerful demonstration of anger was the idea of artistic director Marshall Pynkoski, who is giving Mozart’s Lucio Silla its Canadian premiere April 7 through April 16.

Each night, strapping baritone Kresimir Spicer does his damage with fist and knife; fresh portraits take their places the next night.

Set designer Gauci, who trained as an artist and illustrator at what is now OCAD University, has been with Opera Atelier for 30 years. He admits to a pang that his work must be destroyed every night.

“But it makes for a great scene though,” says Gauci, interviewed in his studio where he creates the paintings that are turned into backdrops and onstage props.

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“It’s shocking,” says Lindsay.

The singers were too busy rehearsing to sit for Gauci so he grabbed a couple of quick snap shots during a 15-minute break and worked from them.

His original acrylic paintings were copied and reproduced on fine cotton canvas from Germany that was light enough to be torn by a hand and would not harm the singer. (The first attempt was too strong to break.) Each portrait was copied 10 times: one for each of six performances, three for rehearsals and an extra “just in case.”

The actresses portrayed are hungering for their portraits, or least the remaining copies, as they are unlike anything they’ve ever seen.

Lindsay holds a bow and carries a quiver in Gauci’s 18th-century-infused work — Lindsay is Diana, goddess of the hunt. Kriha Dye is a short-haired shepherd clad in an animal skin as Endymion, Diana’s beloved. Royalty in the 18th century liked to be portrayed as mythical characters, says Gauci, who reproduced the 400-year-old esthetic for Toronto audiences.

The first time Kriha Dye saw the portraits, a knife was protruding from Lindsay’s head.

“That took me back a bit,” says Kriha Dye, who is thrilled with her portrait. “I feel a part of history.”

Kriha Dye has the role of Cecillio, the boyfriend of Giuna, played by Lindsay. Hers is a trouser role, which is why her whimsical portrait refers to a male mythical character.

“He even caught the physicality, as I’m playing a man. It captures the character I’m playing.”

There’s no doubt in Kriha Dye’s mind, “This is definitely valuable. It is not a prop, but a piece of art. He did a great job.”

In an Opera Atelier production, “the art on stage is as important as the element of dance,” says Lindsay of the company which includes a corps de ballet. She understands that the art is important in “creating the drama.”

She loves her portrait, “It’s really humbling. He’s captured the character fully.”

She says it’s hard “to have to part with them” when the production ends.

The originals belong to Gauci, whose work is shown at Galerie de Bellefeuille in Montreal. He is aware of the singers’ interests in their portraits and hinted a copy might be made available but that decision will be made at the end of the show.

Pynkoski and co-artistic director Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg have produced Lucio Silla in Austria, Germany and Italy for other companies but this is their first production in Canada. The story, which takes place in ancient Rome, has Silla wanting to come between two lovers but ultimately relenting so they can be together.

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